Media Flagstones Along a Path to War on Iranby Norman Solomon
www.dissidentvoice.org
August 6, 2005

On
Tuesday, big alarm bells went off in the national media echo chamber, and
major U.S. news outlets showed that they knew the drill. Iran’s nuclear
activities were pernicious, most of all, because people in high places in
Washington said so.

It didn’t seem to matter much that just that
morning the Washington Post reported: “A major U.S. intelligence
review has projected that Iran is about a decade away from manufacturing
the key ingredient for a nuclear weapon, roughly doubling the previous
estimate of five years, according to government sources with firsthand
knowledge of the new analysis. The carefully hedged assessments, which
represent consensus among U.S. intelligence agencies, contrast with
forceful public statements by the White House.”

By evening -- hours after the Iranian
government said it would no longer suspend activities related to enriching
uranium -- American news outlets were making grave pronouncements,
amplifying the statements from French, British and German officials
closing ranks with the Bush administration. On television in the United
States, a narrow range of talking heads detoured around the USA’s profuse
nuclear hypocrisies.

Yes, officials in Washington and their
allies conceded, an Iranian restart of uranium enrichment activities would
not violate the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. But, as a Washington
Post article put it Wednesday, the Iranian nuclear program was “built
in secret over 18 years” and “the clandestine nature of the effort created
deep suspicions in Washington and elsewhere about Iran’s intentions.”

In sharp contrast, no “suspicions” are
needed about the nuclear activities of two of Iran’s bitterest enemies,
Israel and Pakistan. Both have produced atomic weapons. Unlike Iran, those
two U.S. allies have refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty and do
not submit to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

For good measure, last month the U.S.
government announced plans to engage in cooperation on atomic energy
projects with the Indian government, which has nuclear bombs and has not
signed the NPT.

So, the nuclear moralists in Washington have
no problem with Israeli, Pakistani and Indian nuclear weapons, developed
and stockpiled with contemptuous disregard for the Non-Proliferation
Treaty. But the White House and talking heads of U.S. television are
insisting that Iran has no right to do what the treaty allows it and other
signers to do -- develop nuclear power, ostensibly to generate
electricity.

The latest U.S. media uproar about Iran’s
nuclear program is part of a dream starting to come true for neo-cons in
Washington who fantasize about “regime change” in Tehran. More
realistically, for the nearer term, the Bush administration is setting the
agenda for a U.S. air attack on Iran.

“This notion that the United States is
getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous,” President Bush told a
news conference in late February. He added in the same breath: “and having
said that, all options are on the table.” Assembled journalists laughed.